Child sex abuse in Hollywood

Revelations of this sort come as no surprise to former child star Corey Feldman.

Feldman, 40, himself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, unflinchingly warned of the world of pedophiles who are drawn to the entertainment industry last August. “I can tell you that the No. 1 problem in Hollywood was and is and always will be pedophilia,” Feldman told ABC’s Nightline. “That’s the biggest problem for children in this industry… It’s the big secret.”

Another child star from an earlier era agrees that Hollywood has long had a problem with pedophilia. “When I watched that interview, a whole series of names and faces from my history went zooming through my head,” Paul Peterson, 66, star of The Donna Reed Show, a sitcom popular in the 1950s and 60s, and president of A Minor Consideration, tells FOXNews.com. “Some of these people, who I know very well, are still in the game.”

“This has been going on for a very long time,” concurs former “Little House on the Prairie” star Alison Arngrim. “It was the gossip back in the ‘80s. People said, ‘Oh yeah, the Coreys, everyone’s had them.’ People talked about it like it was not a big deal.”

Arngrim, 49, was referring to Feldman and his co-star in “The Lost Boys,” Corey Haim, who died in March 2010 after years of drug abuse.

Haim Feldman is quoted here saying that he “can’t be the one” to blow the whistle on the unnamed “Hollywood mogul” who molested him. Why not? He can’t be the only one. It’s not like he has a career to protect any more. But he might be able to protect others from being molested. Why can’t Paul Peterson name names? I know people may well, and reasonably, feel that they have too much to lose by naming names — that’s why it was kept so quiet in the Church for all those years — but I wonder if the public’s attitude on this kind of thing has shifted enough to where there isn’t as much to lose by going public. If this abuse really happened — and again, I would bet that it did, but I don’t know this — then why isn’t someone putting together a massive lawsuit? I wish they would. If it’s true.

Well, there may be pedophiles in high places in Hollywood, but at least they’re not — shudder — Republicans.

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19 Responses to Child sex abuse in Hollywood

The rumor about who the “Hollywood mogul” is in the Feldman/Haim story has been going around for a while. Who knows if it’s true, and it’s perhaps a little convenient, but it’s fairly easy to see how it was pieced together in the era of the Internet Movie Database, even if it means making the leap of “homosexual” to “pedophile”.

I hope it has shifted enough people can step forward. It seems that at least here in upstate NY–a place rocked by so many of these scandals–people are shifting to the point of demanding that people name names, for the sake of those who are still at risk. The victims, like any witness, are seen to have a social contract to step up and say, “No more!”

Not easy, I know. But someone, somewhere must speak up, and the rest of us need to support them as they do.

As to the Hollywood angle, I guess the city is everything our grandparents warned us it was, huh?

Also – while I certainly don’t agree with keeping this all quiet, I can kind of understand why no one seems to want to be the person who names names: all you need to do is take a look at how Hollywood treated Roman Polanski. He totally got a pass since he was an ‘artist’ and a ‘genius’. He’s still getting a pass from Hollywood. He’s been lionized as some Great Man. Hollywood was more than willing to sacrifice his victim on the alter of Making Legendary Films.

Why can’t Paul Peterson name names? I know people may well, and reasonably, feel that they have too much to lose by naming names — that’s why it was kept so quiet in the Church for all those years — but I wonder if the public’s attitude on this kind of thing has shifted enough to where there isn’t as much to lose by going public.

In the ABCNews story, Haim says that one person he is afraid to name is a billionaire. What would happen if you accused a billionaire of pedophilia in his hometown? Would the police report disappear, as apparently happened at Happy Valley? I imagine great pressure would be exerted to prevent the allegations from being brought to trial. Bear in mind that pedophiles scare even those who don’t fear death, because every one of us has children among our family and friends.

Feldman’s been hinting about this for years. It kind of changes the debate about why so many child stars are so screwed up, doesn’t it?

It’s clear by now that any area of society where kids are prevalent attracts a certain amount of predatory adults, who take up positions as priests, teachers, agents, etc. (Somewhat strangely, society basically forbids men from working as care providers for young children, clearly for fear of this problem, but allows them many other routes of access at various points.) The ubiquity of the problem should change the way the Church sex scandals are discussed, but it won’t, of course, because there is so much more going on there.

My charitable assumption is that Corey Feldman promised the victim not to say anything.

What would you do if your friend, the now-adult victim of childhood rape, begged you not to betray his confidence; if he reminded you that he only confessed after extracting a promise “never to tell anyone”, and he holds you to that promise? He has his reasons: a legal settlement, a current job, Christian forgiveness, whatever.

Remember, we are charitably not accusing Feldman of covering up ongoing child rape, and we are assuming the only victim he knows is now an adult, even middle-aged.

Should Feldman hurt a real actual existing friend for a speculative benefit to a very-possibly non-existent current child victim? Does justice demand vengeance, even if the victim does not desire it?

Hollywood has all the elements to support that kind of thing– a strict hierarchy of untouchables at the top who cultivate inner circles of loyalty on which careers depend. An insular culture in which people are more loyal to personalities than society (“X could *never* do that– he’s such a close friend!”). Related to all both is how Hollywood works as an apprentice system where you have to stay loyal to the same people for many years to make it– by the time you have enough economic and professional independence/success that you could blow the whistle on someone for that kind of thing, you’re part and parcel of the system that you’re loyal to.

The blasé attitude towards Roman Polanski’s crimes might not just be about their personal loyalty to him but about the fact that he was just doing what lots of other people were doing and just got caught.

Mattswartz and e have it exactly right. These are not people who play by the rules and it is a simple matter to make people disappear. And cops and prosecutors have families. They don’t want anything bad to happen to their families.

“Given these public statements, why isn’t the local DA bringing these people to testify before a grand jury?”

Considering how neither the Los Angeles County DA’s office couldn’t figure out how to convict a celebrity murderer who was practically wearing a “I am guilty” sign around him, how do you think they would fare trying to put away a Hollywood big shot? The same or worse? That’s why they wouldn’t touch such a case with a ten foot poll. They rather go after the little people because they don’t hire 10 lawyers to get them off.

I would be cautious about criticizing a sexual abuse victim for not being the first to complain. The first person is frequently savaged by the perpetrator in the media, and he or she can’t know whether others will actually come forward. So the first victim to disclose risks being both savaged and alone. Sound familiar?

Pedophilia against young male actors couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the rise of openly homosexual moguls could it? No I suppose not. The same goes for the Roman Catholic Church. The takeover of the seminaries by sodomites couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the flood of boy rape allegations. No it just has to be something more counterintuitive.